As a note, the KnK material is going to start diverging heavily from the show from here on out. Besides me not really wanting to just rehash the show, I noticed that KnK is so tightly plotted that it's like a house of cards-breathe on it, and the flow of events collapses, and you get something radically different. Hopefully, I can make the resulting AU here entertaining to read. Enjoy.

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Axel leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, looking Saix right in the eyes. "So, basically, you want me to intimidate children."

Saix shook his head, clasping his hands together on the desk in front of him. "Absolutely not. That will only create a larger problem than we need."

"Exactly. So, why did you call me in here, then?"

"Just a little… substantiation." Saix passed him Xion's report. "If what she thinks is correct, this world may house much more than the imposter."

Axel picked up the notes and looked over them. The handwriting was like a chicken with a crayon in its beak, but of course, Xion had already told him everything. Not that he would let Saix know that. Some of the claims were extraordinary… at least, they would be, if there weren't all the other worlds to compare it to.

He tossed the notes lightly back to the desk. "Don't see what's so special about this. Still sounds to me like you're stressing out over them getting caught up with locals."

"That's only part of it." Saix leaned in. "What interests me about this are mainly what they found out about the children. The sword doesn't interest me, I feel that was a bit of a stretch. But these 'youmu'… it seems they can, in fact, be intelligent. They may be more relevant than we first believed."

Axel shrugged. "Then they're just locals, no?"

"Do remember that in both the initial scouting and the Keybearer's investigation, there were no Heartless reported. But a world without Heartless doesn't line up with what we know about how worlds open up to travel. So, logically… we might just be missing Heartless right before our eyes."

Axel mulled on that. "…So, what, you want me to kill the blond kid and see if a heart comes out?"

"That will be Roxas's job… if this theory is correct." Saix pulled back into proper posture. "Your job is to observe. Preferably, without getting involved as they did."

"So just see how they act, then."

Saix nodded. "Correct. Stay they for a few days and report back."

"…All right, fair enough. Might as well get it over with, then."

Axel stood up and opened the Dark Corridor himself. Saix stood up as well, but he didn't say anything. After a short pause, Axel shrugged and silently slipped in. This was how a lot of their interactions were going lately, he noticed. Very professional, almost military. Very cold. It was a wonder they talked at all anymore.

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Mirai had elected to go home alone this time around. She couldn't rely on Akihito forever. The fact that he had been so willing to help her out lately was nice, but ultimately, it wouldn't last. She knew that, because it never did. Not since what had happened. What she had done.

The Hollow Shadow would be coming soon. Or coming back, as it were. Maybe she could go back to him after she defeated it, atoned for the life that her hands had helped that youmu end.

She heard something behind her, interrupting her thoughts. Almost like a gust of wind... but it wasn't a windy day, and she couldn't feel the gust or see anything looking like it had just been blown. She turned around to see where it had come from.

Right there was a tall man in a black hood.

She thought back to those kids who had helped her chase down Akihito in the first place-Roxas and Xion, right? This man had the same coat. But this... this was different. The man was brooding, intimidating, powerful.

Mirai called out. "Who are you?"

The man didn't say anything, instead ducking into an alleyway. Mirai called again, louder. "Hey! Come back! You look like people I met...!"

But alas, the man didn't call back. Mirai looked back and forth between the route to her home and the alley that he had run into.

Then she shook her head. It would be safer to avoid seeing that man again, whoever he was and whatever his intentions were. If she didn't get involved, she wouldn't be in any crossfire. And after all, she did need to survive long enough to fight the Hollow Shadow.

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If at all possible, Axel planned to avoid catching the eyes of that girl again. Mirai, that's what Xion had said her name was. She seemed like a liability. He doubted Xion's claims that she had a Keyblade, based on the description of the weapon-sure, there were some odd ones about, but none of them resembled a blood-red sword.

And with that put aside, there was really no reason to investigate her further, except perhaps as a gateway to this Akihito character. And that would be easy enough to pull off without being seen-just shadow her until she found the tall Roxas.

And, oh, was she so easy to shadow. At first.

He started early the next day, catching her passing by the same alleyway from the day before and blending himself into some of the morning crowd. Mirai seemed constantly distracted, as if her mind were someplace else. Occasionally, she would pull out her phone and frantically type something, even narrating it. First a complaint, and after that, what sounded like angry responses to trolls.

How cute, he thought. Pays more attention to the haters than to the people around her.

But a few hours there was a shift in her awareness. Axel knew exactly when he had been spotted—Mirai's eyes widened, and she picked up the pace considerably. Axel shook his head—he had let his guard down too much. He had to change plans.

He quickly slipped out of the crowd and opened up a Dark Corridor up onto the rooftops. He was able to spot Mirai again quickly—the shade of her hair dye would have made Marluxia blush. It only became easier when she left the crowd herself for an empty stretch of road. He just had to turn the corner and—

Oh. It was blocked off. Axel could see it clearly, even though no one else seemed to notice it—a bright, blue shimmer that appeared after Mirai had passed through, encircling a large area and extending into the sky.

Axel raised an eyebrow and walked around, inspecting the barrier. It didn't look like the ones the Organization used to designate the area of operations. That meant it had to be of this world—and if it was of this world, it could be circumvented.

He hopped down, off the roof and down to the entrance to the side street that Mirai had passed into. Then he snapped his fingers, opening up a new Dark Corridor, a short one that would just get past the barrier. An Organization barrier would have easily short-circuited such an easy maneuver… but with this one, Axel was able to pass through just fine.

Axel smiled to himself a bit at that. But the accomplishment was soon dampened when he realized that he had completely lost Mirai. He shook his head and flipped his hood down. "Dammit…"

He would have to approach this another way. And another day.

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Mirai knew for sure now that she was being watched.

What for, she had no clue. But interacting with those kids had been a mistake. Whoever they worked for, she had been marked.

She couldn't prepare for the fight ahead unless she could get these people off her back first. Yet another thing she had to face alone.

She paced up and down her tiny studio apartment, occasionally looking out the window to see if the man was out there. Dammit, even she couldn't face this one alone. It was too much. But who was supposed to turn to?

...Akihito. Dammit, she didn't have any better ideas.

She pulled out her phone and skimmed down her contacts to the number. She hadn't actually called the boy once since they exchanged that number-she was on her phone a lot, but she was not the type to make calls. it was awkward, clumsy. A layer of unpleasantness on top of the unpleasantness of talking to people in the first place.

She shook her head and just hit the button, putting the phone to her ear. After a few seconds that felt like they dragged on for ages, she heard the other end pick up.

Akihito's voice came through. "Hello...Kuriyama?"

"Yes, yes, it's me..." Mirai laid down on her bed, holding her head.

Akihito sounded concerned. "I didn't know you did phone calls..."

"Senpai, I think I'm being stalked."

"Wh-what?" Akihito sounded outright shocked at that. "By who?"

Mirai looked to the window. "Some guy in a black coat... the same one those people we met were wearing before. I saw him following me today. I wouldn't want to bother you normally, but..."

"No, no, you are not bothering me." Mirai heard a rustling, like hangers moving in a closet. "I'm coming over."

Mirai bit her lip. "Senpai, thank you, but... I don't think there's enough room in here for you to stay the night..."

"Then we can go to… I don't know, Ayaka," Akihito said. "Maybe these black hood people are youmu, and if they are, she'll know better than anyone."

Mirai thought on that, looking to her hand and clutching the bandage on her arm a few times. "…I just don't want to get anyone caught in this and make it worse."

"I know. But dammit, I can't just leave you to be followed around by some creep or a youmu." The ambient noise on the other end picked up as Akihito left his apartment. "Just stay there, I'll be there as fast as I can."

The call ended. Mirai rubbed her face and looked out the window again.

She turned off the light when she noticed black coattails , moving in the wind as if their owner was running away from the window.